5. Review - Budgets and Fiscal Planning Committee

Comments

This proposal is being returned because the BFP group, the Graduate Council and the Provost have, in the past, indicated that they do not regard programs where large numbers of faculty are appointed at 0.49 FTE as sustainable, appropriate ways to construct programs. While these groups recognize the utility and need for part time faculty, a program that seems to be largely based upon faculty who are not receiving health insurance and retirement benefits is not acceptable. We suggest that these faculty be appointed at > 0.5 FTE allowing them to have full benefits. In addition, it is not clear to us the number of regular OSU faculty and the number of newly hired Cascades faculty participating in this program in each year and how these people are designated in the budget.

6. Originator Response

Comments

Cornelius Browne November 8, 2012 5:28pm

I have attached a newly revised MOU and budget sheets addressing the BFP group's concerns.

It is essential to understand that, by contrast to tenure-line commitments made by universities in full-residency MFA Programs, prestigious low-residency programs across the country (from Warren Wilson to Sarah Lawrence) recruit their staff from high-profile authors with MFA training to work as professional mentors and to teach in biannual residencies on term contracts. These professional mentors are not physically housed at OSU Cascades Campus. They work from their own home base on a contract basis. They are people who have reached the upper levels of their craft and are not seeking tenure or full time employment at OSU. This is the norm, and is expected by both students and mentors. Of the top-ten-rated low residency creative writing programs in the United States, all function on this model

7. Review - Budgets and Fiscal Planning Committee

Comments

We are returning this proposal for corrections and needed additional information. The items needing attention are: (1) Please edit the proposal to remove the “mfa mou browne .doc (10/03/2012) and the “MFA Budget Addendum.xlsx” (10/03/2012). We believe these obsolete files could confuse readers. (2) Under Personnel in the budgets, please either footnote the budget page or describe, in the narrative, that the 70K$ is the salary of the director, the 33.5K$ is the OPE for that salary (and how that number was estimated). (3) Under Personnel in the budgets, please add the salaries to be paid to OSU faculty participating in the program and the relevant OPE costs (and the basis for the estimates.) (4) Under Supplies and Service, please indicate the breakdown between Supplies and Services (where we understand the Services are the Personal Service Contracts for the “guest faculty” and how these estimates were made.) (5) Indicate the inflation factor used in estimating the expenses in years 2-4. (6) In Column E of the budget, please indicate the estimated revenue from tuition (or other sources) for each year

11. Review - Budgets and Fiscal Planning Committee

Comments

This proposal is approved with the following conditions and advisories. All of the supply expense should be put together in the supplies budget with appropriate adjustments elsewhere. This includes the $12,000 of general supplies, the $15,000 of director's supplies and the computer ($3000) for the director. The Director of the Office of Budgets also advises that the RAM monies are not allocated to the units and you should plan without that revenue.

12. Review - Graduate Council Chair

Approved
by
James Coakley Associate Dean / College of Business Dept, February 25, 2013 3:37pm

Comments

James Coakley (Graduate Council Chair) February 25, 2013 3:37pm

The Graduate Council approves the MOU provided a Graduate Program Review (GPR) is conducted on the low-residency MFA program three years after the first cohort starts the program. The Cascades campus should coordinate with the Graduate School to schedule the GPR.

20. Review - Academic Programs

Comments

Gary Beach (Academic Programs) May 17, 2013 9:31am

The OUS Provosts' Council APPROVED the proposal to extend the existing MFA in Creative Writing degree program from OSU-Main to the OSU-Cascades branch campus on May 9, 2013. This was the final review and approval step for this proposal from OSU-Cascades and the School of Writing, Literature, and Film in the College of Liberal Arts.

The Effective Term will be Summer Term 2013.

[Note: At the requesst of the OUS Provosts' Council, a revision to the original and reformatted versions of the proposal (Section 2a and 2b) now includes reference to the creative writing program at Eastern Oregon University.]

--Gary

21. Review - Catalog Coordinator

Approved
by
Larry Bulling Program Technician 1 / Office of the Registrar, May 17, 2013 9:42am

Proposal

Proposal ID:
83436

Type:
New MOU

Submission Date:
May 12, 2013 9:35pm

Approval Date:
May 17, 2013 9:42am

Effective Term:
Summer 2013

Justification:

Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver low-residency programs in Creative Writing are all located west of the Cascades. A program at OSU-Cascades could potentially draw students from Central Oregon, eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Northern California. According to the Low Residency MFA Directors' Survey, eight of the 31 programs polled responded that their program is composed of 50% or more in-state students which bodes well for attracting students to an Oregon-based low-residency MFA program. Student populations have grown at state universities and community colleges during the current recession. When it ends, the central Oregon region will grow again. Both scenarios contribute to a growing student population. When family or economics or jobs keep students place-bound, it is the local campus that can offer what they need. However, the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing at Cascades will also strive to attract students nationwide. With a strong national faculty, the program will draw from across the United States. While serving the region is a central part of the mission of the Cascades Campus, so too is the effort to build nationally known and respected programs in Bend, which in turn contributes to the heightened national visibility of Oregon State University as a whole.

• Therefore, it is important that an OSU-Cascades low-residency program aim to rival the most respected programs in quality and academic rigor. Given the differing goals of the students who enroll, also reinforced by a survey of graduates of other low-residency programs, the great appeal of a low-residency program is its flexibility, which involves the student in the design of his or her individualized curriculum while meeting the requirements of program itself. The low-residency model attracts more age-diverse applicants annually than the traditional creative writing program. The average age of the student is 36, more in line with the demographic served on the Cascades Campus. Given the population served by Cascades Campus, the low-residency program will also attract employed students seeking an additional degree while maintaining employment. Low residency answers the requirements of the current economic times as people strive to better position themselves professionally while maintaining employment. The program emphasizes the study of literary craft from within the writer's perspective. It is not, however, a technical or narrow degree. The reading and analytical components of each mentorship period, and the variety of classes and workshops offered during the residency periods, provide well-integrated curricula in the humanities, with the emphasis falling on direction of individual manuscripts, instruction in literary craft, and the actual work of writing. While the balanced study of literature and the craft of writing does make graduates viable candidates for teaching positions, the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing is not geared toward specifically educating teachers. It can open the doors to many professions, including journalism, editing, marketing and communications and is recognized as important to improve writing, communication and abstract thinking skills in engineering and the sciences

• For a state university system to offer both a low and high residency MFA in Creative Writing is unique to Oregon and most of the country and would help both programs at both OSU campuses. The OSU-Cascades Low Residency MFA Program complements the established high-residency program at OSU Corvallis/School of Writing, Literature, and Film and adds to the breadth of graduate offerings on the Cascades Campus. The addition of a graduate degree in the Liberal Arts creates balance with the current focus on professional graduate programs at Cascades, and also enhances OSU Cascades’ reputation as an well-rounded undergraduate institution, increasing student enrollment at Cascades at both the graduate and undergraduate level. It underscores OSU-Cascades’ growing potential as a destination for writers with national visibility.

Originators

Contacts

New Location Proposal Information

College/Department or College/School:
College of Liberal Arts / School of Writing, Literature and Film

Description:

The proposed low-residency MFA in Creative Writing at OSU-Cascades entails the Advanced Creative Writing workshop-based side of the MFA in Creative Writing on the Corvallis campus and delivers the same high quality training in writing and literary craft. The delivery significantly differs. Studying under a low-residency studio/mentorship model, students in the OSU-Cascades Low Residency MFA Program will satisfy graduate degree requirements parallel to those established by the OSU-Corvallis MFA in Creative Writing. The low-residency MFA in Creative writing—through its different delivery method—will add diversity to, not duplication of, the established writing programs at Oregon State University.